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Azaria Chamberlain disappearance

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Two-month-old Australian baby Azaria Chamberlain disappeared on the night of 17 August 1980 on a camping trip with her family. Her parents, Lindy Chamberlain and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo. An initial inquest, highly critical of the police investigation, agreed with this assumption, but after a further investigation and a new enquiry, Azaria's parents were arrested, tried, and convicted of her murder in 1982.

The media focus for the trial, which included the first live telecast of Australian court proceedings, was extraordinarily intense and sensational. The Chamberlains made several unsuccessful appeals but not until the chance discovery of a piece of Azaria's clothing in an area full of dingo lairs were they successful. Both were released and subsequently acquitted of murder, and although the case is officially unsolved, their report of a dingo attack is generally accepted. Recent deadly dingo attacks in other areas of Australia have cemented public assumption that Azaria was carried off and killed by a dingo.

The story has been made into a feature film and TV movie. There have also been numerous books about the case. Outside of Australia, the incident is often referred to as the Dingo Baby case. The case has given rise to the meme 'A dingo's got my baby!' and variations on that theme.

Contents

Azaria

Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain (June 11 1980 - August 17 1980) was born at the Mount Isa Maternity Hospital in Australia, daughter of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain. She weighed nearly 3 kg at birth and was 47 cm long.

Disappearance of Azaria

Michael Chamberlain, his wife Lindy and their three children, left Mount Isa, Queensland in August 1980 and drove to Uluru for a camping holiday. They arrived on the evening of Saturday, August 16.

On the night of August 17 1980. Lindy Chamberlain reported Azaria had been taken from their tent, where she had been sleeping in her bassinette, during the night by a dingo, a type of wild dog. Three hundred people formed a human chain during the night and searched the sand dunes near the camp site. Despite this effort, Azaria Chamberlain was never found.

One week later, Victorian tourist Mr Wallace Goodwin discovered Azaria's heavily blood-stained singlet, jumpsuit and nappy.

Coroner's inquests

The initial Coroner's inquest into the disappearance was opened on December 15 1980 before Denis Barritt, SM. On February 20 1981, in the first live telecast of Australian court proceedings, and the first court hearing convened at Uluru, Mr. Barritt reported that the likely cause was a dingo attack. In addition to this finding, Mr. Barritt also concluded that subsequent to the attack, the body was taken from the dingo and disposed of by an unknown method by persons unknown.

Police and prosecutors were skeptical that a dingo could be responsible, so they moved for a further inquest.

This second investigation was held in September of the same year. Based on ultraviolet investigations of the jumpsuit that Azaria had been wearing on the night she disappeared by Dr James Cameron of the London Hospital Medical College, the new finding was made that Azaria had been killed with a pair of scissors and held by a small adult hand until she stopped bleeding.

Following this finding, the Chamberlains were charged with Azaria's murder and taken into custody.

Case against Lindy Chamberlain

The Crown alleged that Lindy Chamberlain had cut Azaria's throat in the front seat of the family car. The key evidence supporting this allegation was the jumpsuit and the finding from the second inquest, as well as a highly contentious forensic report claiming to have found evidence of foetal haemoglobin in blood stains allegedly found in the front seat of the Chamberlain's 1977 Torana hatchback. Foetal haemoglobin is present in infants six months or younger; Azaria Chamberlain was nine weeks old at the time.

In defence, eyewitness evidence was presented of dingoes seen in the area on the evening of 17 August 1980. All witnesses claimed to believe the Chamberlain's story. One witness also reported hearing a baby's cry after the time when the prosecution alleged Azaria had been murdered. Evidence was also presented that adult blood also passed the test used for foetal haemoglobin.

The defence's case was rejected by the jury and Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murder on 29 October 1982 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Michael Chamberlain was found guilty as an accessory and was given an 18-month, suspended sentence.

Appeals

An appeal was made to the High Court in November 1983. Asked to quash the convictions on the ground that the verdicts were unsafe and unsatisfactory, in February 1984 the Court refused the appeal by majority, however, the mixed findings of the judges gave encouragement to Lindy Chamberlain's supporters.

Release and acquittal

The final resolution of the Azaria case was triggered by a chance discovery.

In early 1986, English tourist David Brett fell to his death from Uluru during an evening climb. Because of the vast size of the rock and the scrubby nature of the surrounding terrain, it was eight days before Brett's remains were discovered lying below the bluff where he had lost his footing, in an area full of dingo lairs. As police searched the area looking for missing bones that might have been carried off by dingoes, they discovered a small article of clothing. It was quickly identified as the crucial missing piece of evidence from the Chamberlain case — Azaria's matinee jacket.

The NT Chief Minister ordered Lindy's immediate release and the case was reopened. On September 15 1988, the NT Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously overturned all convictions against Lindy Chamberlain and Michael Chamberlain. The acquittal was based on a rejection of the two key points of the prosecution's case — particularly the alleged foetal haemoglobin evidence — and of bias and invalid assumptions made during the initial trial.

The questionable nature of the forensic evidence in the Chamberlain trial, and the weight given to it, raised concerns about such procedures and about expert testimony in criminal cases. The prosecution successfully argued that the pivotal haemoglobin tests indicated the presence of foetal haemoglobin in the Chamberlains' car, and that it was a significant factor in the original conviction. But it was later shown that these tests were highly unreliable, and that similar tests conducted on the substance used to rust-proof the body of the car had yielded virtually identical results.

Two years after they were exonerated, the Chamberlains were awarded AU$1.3 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment, a sum that covered approximately one-fifth of their legal expenses in the case.

Media involvement and bias

The Chamberlain trial was the most publicised in Australian history. Given that most of the evidence presented in the case against Lindy Chamberlain was later rejected, the case is now used as an example of how the media and bias can adversely affect a trial.

Public and media opinion during the trial had been significantly against the Chamberlains. Much was made of the fact that the Chamberlains were Seventh-day Adventists (including allegations that the church was in fact a strange cult that had killed babies as part of bizarre religious ceremonies)[A Cry in the Night] / Fiona Steel (2005), that the family took a newborn baby to a remote desert location, and that Mrs Chamberlain showed little emotion during the proceedings.

Police had received an anonymous tip from a man, claiming to be Azaria’s doctor in Mt. Isa, that the name Azaria meant "sacrifice in the desert" (it actually means "helped by God"). The caller did not give his name. Claims were made that Lindy Chamberlain was a witch, based on her tendency to wear black. Another rumour which gained considerable currency in Australia at the time was that the real culprit was the Chamberlain's son, Aidan, and that his parents were covering up for his guilt.

Evil Angels

The story has been written into many different books and accounts. Perhaps the best known is the John Bryson book Evil Angels published in 1985. In 1987 Australian director Fred Schepisi adapted the book into a feature film of the same name (retitled A Cry in the Dark in the United States). It starred Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain and Sam Neill as Michael Chamberlain. There was some criticism at the time of the casting of an American as Mrs. Chamberlain, but most critics were silenced by Streep's performance, and by Lindy herself, who commended the movie for its accuracy and praised Streep highly for her portrayal.

Subsequent events

In 1995, a third inquest into the death by Coroner John Lowndes delivered an open finding, leaving the case officially unsolved.

In July 2004, Frank Cole, a Melbourne pensioner, claimed that he had shot a dingo in 1980 and found a baby in its mouth. After interviewing Mr Cole on the matter, police decided not to reopen the case.

The Chamberlains' claim that a dingo had taken Azaria was originally greeted with skepticism by many people. Several factors led to this, including a lack of knowledge about dingoes and their behaviour, and the fact that these animals generally live in remote areas and so were rarely seen by most Australians. Combined with the historical human partiality for dogs, this led to a situation where dingoes simply were not perceived as a dangerous species.

However, since the Chamberlain case, other proven cases of attacks on humans by dingoes have brought about a dramatic change in public opinion. It is now widely accepted that, as the first inquest concluded, baby Azaria probably was killed by a dingo, and that her body could easily have been removed and presumably eaten by a dingo, leaving little or no trace.

Crucial to this change of public opinion was a string of attacks by dingoes on Fraser Island, off the Queensland coast, the last refuge in Australia for pure-breed wild dingoes. In the wake of these attacks, most of which took place in the late 1990s, it emerged that there have been at least 400 documented dingo attacks on Fraser Island alone. Most were against children, but at least two were attacks on adults.

Notably, in April 1998, in a scenario strikingly similar to the story told by Lindy Chamberlain, a 13-month old girl was grabbed by a dingo and dragged from a picnic blanket at the Waddy Point camping area. Fortunately, in this case, the child was dropped after her father intervened.

Popular media

Facets of the Chamberlain case have moved into popular usage, and almost immediately after Azaria's disappearance, morbid jokes about the case began to circulate in Australia and elsewhere. Partly due to the intense publicity, but mostly because of the subsequent movie, the concept of a dingo taking a baby has become a stock pop-culture reference.

Most references centre on quotations (or mis-quotations) of the statement Lindy Chamberlain was reported to have made immediately after her daughter's disappearance -- "A dingo took my baby!" -- and from the subsequent quotation of this line in Evil Angels.

Current

The cause of Azaria's disappearance has not been officially determined. The last and final official inquest listed the cause of her death as "undetermined." A body has never been found, only various items of bloodstained clothing. The Chamberlains who were originally convicted have been officially exonerated by the Court and eventually received some financial compensation. It is estimated that their legal fees exceeded 5 Million Australian Dollars.

In August 2005, a 25-year old woman named Erin Horsburgh claimed that she is Azaria Chamberlain, but her claims were rejected by the authorities, and the ABC's Mediawatch program stated that none of the reports linking Horsburgh to the Chamberlain case had any substance.

The Chamberlains eventually divorced in 1991 and Lindy Chamberlain has since remarried. She and her new husband lived for a time in the United States but have since returned to Australia.

See also

Notes

References

Part of the series on Crime in Australia
Regional crime: Timeline | Melbourne | Northern Territory | Western Australia | Sydney
Australian law: Courts | Criminal law | Law enforcement
Australian people: | | | |
Australian prisons: | | | | | | |
International:

 

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